Sunday, May 31, 2015

Demonization

I think the demonizing of a religion is part of the process of religious persecution. ISIS knows this better than anyone and American Freedom Defense Initiative also knows this. The recent attack on religious freedom has exposed the sides better as my debates revealed deep hatred of Islam and dedication to the destruction. Basically, those who agree with the persecution of Islam either A) don't think it's persecution. B) think it's justified because Islam "isn't a real religion". They are two sides of the same coin.

And I'm definitely in the minority of people who think actively marching on a mosque to disrupt and terrorize Muslims trying to worship is a case of emotional terrorism. Like, "I only called my child a low piece of worthless shit who should die because he's a goat fucker. What did I do wrong? Why am I being charged with child abuse?"

Is that how you were raised?

That's my take on this issue. It's very easy to abuse people as long as you are not abused. The pundits like Bill Maher and Bill O'Reilly and Pamela Geller are winning the war of propaganda to the point that when I say that this emotional attack is a civil rights violation, I'm considered nuts. I went to the Religion forum on Craigslist and did not manage to recruit a single person into signing the petition. They believe that spiritual abuse and emotional attacks, insults, offensive cartoons, marching like thugs with guns and pitchforks....IS NOT PERSECUTION. How the fuck did this happen? How did people get to the point where you can march on a mosque and disrupt prayer with guns and offensive cartoons and call them "goat fuckers" and that's not persecution? Even the religious folks only felt that Islam was not worthy of defense. This is another trend in the thug law that is spreading across the United States. ISIS demonizes Christians and Jews to recruit terrorists. Bill Maher demonizes Islam to recruit hate members to his domestic terrorist groups. This is the pattern: demonize, discredit, dehumanize, defile, decriminalize. kill. Are Muslims being radicalized? Yes. Are Christians being radicalized? Yes. Are Mormons being radicalized? Yes. Are Red Sox Fans being radicalized? Yes. We are at stage 3. Once the law doesn't apply to Muslim citizens then they can be killed. That's the goal of all these terrorist groups and they will fail because there are 8 million Muslims who will defend themselves. This is the main recruiting tactic of ISIS, "America is incompatible with Islam"....and Geller is demonstrating that is exactly true. America, at least Texas and Arizona, are incompatible with Islam because they are not defending the right of Muslims to worship in peace. That's because they have been demonized by political pundits. We have freedom of press, but does that include emotional terrorism of religions? Currently, it does. Fox News daily rants about the demon religion like witch hunters from 1610. They are constantly ranting and sewing seeds of hate and people are gobbling it up. It's 1933 Germany all over again. I don't see how rationality will recover as long as the hate mongers have their popular programs. I really don't. It's mathematical: if you can convert a certain number of people daily to become an anti-islam (or jew, or christian or LDS) then you will eventually have the power to execute anyone. I don't know if I'll be around to see that happen but I definitely see it in the future. Eventually, there will be an armed mob bombing a Mosque or Synagogue or Church and the police will do nothing. And the level of intolerance for that religion will decide what happens next. I predict it will always escalate to violence and right now the states of Arizona and Texas are sanctioning the terrorism. It hasn't reached the stage of grenades or pipe bombs but I don't see how the fuse can be pulled out. The hate and division is so deeply held that it's going to be impossible to stop it. There will be holy war in America and already there is religious persecution. The conditions that the original Puritans fled from in England have been recreated 400 years later in country the Puritans founded to escape from the religious persecution. It's too ironic but I really weep for humanity. I see resistance and if I'd been in Arizona then I would've joined the counter-protesters but I can not realistically see these left wing zealots changing their mind. They have a blood lust that must be satisfied and they are going to keep pushing and pushing. It's an intractable situation because Muslims are truly not safe, they will be attacked, they will be persecuted and the police are impotent and in collusion with the zealots. So, what is a Muslim to do? Wait to be attacked and then who does he call? The police already demonstrate they don't care. If the Muslim defends himself he will be charged with murder. If he doesn't defend himself he will die? He has no options and I feel we've failed as a nation if that's true.

The light of liberty grows very dim. America has disgraced itself.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Choose Your Side

I'm going to entertain myself with a foray into futile politics. I'll promote my petition where I can but I also want to share some of the responses I got from people who won't be signing my petition. I'll assemble these responses here so you all who have not signed the petition can know exactly who you have chosen to be allies with. It's definitely a humiliation tactic because I don't see how someone can watch armed thugs march on a mosque chanting "Stop Islam" "No More Mosques" and not be considered Nazi equivalents who are being given free opportunity to persecute a religious minority. Really gross. But if you fervently believe that obvious religious persecution is simply harmless free speech then I definitely wish you the very worst kind of free speech Pamela Geller can generate. I truly hope she comes to your home with guns and pitchforks and offensive signs and t-shirts and cartoons and chants thug slogans at your door, because you'll surely shrug and consider it nothing but harmless free speech, protected by the glorious constitution. Sure, you will. The terrified look in your child's eye will simply be his weakness, and not related to the thug terrorists at the door.

And furthermore, the quotes here will give you and idea of what to expect because I'm not going to pretend this is a popular opinion. Fox News has inculcated a society of brain dead people even the ones who hate Fox News. Yes, you have bought the idea that hate speech and religious persecution is protected. Well, I'm here to protect Freedom of Religion and I have the highest ground possible because I'm neither religious nor devout. I am purely a social philosopher and this is my conclusion: one can not stand aside when someone persecutes a religious group. If you do, then you have failed as an American and a person. Your parents didn't raise you right, and once you became an adult you neglected your studies. And here are some other people who have failed as Americans:

May Chuck Norris do push ups on your sorry < euphoricphart > 2015-05-30 15:45

ass!!!!! TEXAS RISING!!!

1 signature. ba ha ha ha ha § < hillbillyfishin > 2015-05-30 15:43

take a hike you terrorist head chopping scum § < back-to-iran > 2015-05-30 00:54

subhuman animals betrayed GOD'S 10 commandments < thou-shall-not-kill > 2015-05-30 01:04  


Go screw yourself, you rat bastard sympathiser! < -__- > 2015-05-30 11:01

Where do you live?

Perhaps we should boycott you and your area!

If you don't like our freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, and other freedoms, you can leave! Get out now!

WE citizens have the right to say who can and cannot be here.

Why are you sympathize with and support KNOWN, proven terrorists - that is to say Islamic radicals (17 to 45 years of age)!

YOU are a traitor!

GET OUT NOW, while the getting is good.



Oh, now to educate you, stupid bastard, the State of AZ has the clearest gun rights in the nation! NO gov't agency can interfere with the lawful ownership, possession or legal use of firearms, including protecting one's self, family or community. Again, if you don't like it, get the hell out of MY nation. 


Im going out on a Limb here..But is that one < euphoricphart > 2015-05-30 17:51

signature yours????

Will buy whatever I can from TX & AZ < BooFrigginHooForYou > 2015-05-30 08:48

Maybe if California was more like them, we wouldn't have the problems, gridlock and water rationing we do today.
 
mohamid is the way to the grave or the nuthouse § < boycott-islam >  

f off propaganda lying sand turd gfy § < blah-blah-blah-yawn-zzzz > 2015-05-30 18:32

"As far as your petition - take it, bend over take a deep breath and shove it!!"




I'll sign, if you bring it to me! I might have to wash the blood off to read it! Muslim goat f•ck ers have no place here! I will pray to my god Jesus Christ every day for you to come here, and if Allah smiles on me, it shall be so! Great for me, not so good for you!
(This really makes me laugh because he's saying he'd kill me for exercising my free speech because he's defending free speech?"
Real charming fellow...


(I'll add this one from my own comment section)
"Yeah. Go fuck yourself Oggy. Traitor and A coward. Draft dodger at best. Seriously shut the fuck up about it. If I wanted to hear any shit I'd just squeeze your eccentric head. "


common terrorist threats from thugs. Hypocrites hijack 1st amendment to terrorize.
 

Monday, May 25, 2015

Desert Dust



My needle threader broke before I could add more flowers

There's more to the story of this embroidery project, but for now I will only confess to trying to replicate the 70 year old photograph by Verne Wood of a wild horse in Wyoming. For a model I actually used a oil painting someone did of the photograph so this embroidery project is even further removed from the original. I also moved the horse, a Palomino Stallion named Desert Dust, about 1200 miles south and made him a Mare. Desert Dust was indeed captured during the wild horse round up, a' la the 1961 Henry Miller/John Huston movie The Misfits which killed Clark Gable and also Marilyn Monroe. This photo was of the horse's last few moments of freedom. It became a rodeo horse and tried to stomp to death anyone who rode it. But it was never free again. Desert Dust was reportedly murdered in captivity in 1952 but reckless and unsustainable wild horse entrapment and slaughter came to be regulated. There's actually more to the story than that but to delve deeper would be like turning Desert Dust into dog food.

The horse came out a little fat and the color shades were beyond the limitation of a corner store selection of yarn. And those flowers aren't native to Wyoming. I was adding more flowers when the needle threader broke. Alas, it wasn't the only thing that broke.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Screenshot Trivia #7

Vintage 1986 cinematography; shoot everything at night so no one can tell it's a soundstage
This was a pivotal film in my cinematic development. The key to these lower budget flicks is to make an attempt to rise above the puerile material and get goofy when the timing requires it. It's a revolving door of sequences involving, goofy acting, sex, generic stunts, heroic character arcs. Simple, but don't forget to be unmistakably goofy.

Any Guesses?

Hint: This is one of the few movies to have a character named Oggie, pronounced exactly how my blog name is pronounced. Very portentous. Also, this movie was about as low class/budget ($2.7 million) as would be made in 1986 and it's simply far superior to a $200 million dollar Fast and Furious flick which is technically superior but lacks greatly in the mystique department.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

I Don't Know Why


This song is actually a codependent's anthem, so it's perfect for me. "You treat me like dirt, but I love you anyway."

I Don't Know Why (I Just Do) is in the Nat King Cole songbook. The song is from 1931 so it's from Prohibition era. Fred Ahlert also collaborated on another broken hearted anthem:  I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter. Lyrics were written by Roy Turk. Couple of real professionals from the Cole Porter/Hoagy Carmichael school of songwriting, be generous with the vowels and keep the melody as simple and stepwise right up until it has to jump or else you'll go crazy. That's probably the trademark of all these great songs: very simple stepwise melody, repetitive and basic that has a phrase that ends with a large intervallic leap to the perfectly chosen note and chord, melancholy, wistful, unmistakable, fundamental.
Ahlert and Turk wrote Mean to Me, which the Tenor Sax player Lester Young and my pianist Buddy Nat King Cole and drummer Buddy Rich all slayed. That's a dream trio...no bassist, but a ton of soul. I was reading some asshole saying Jazz makes no sense to him and is dead based on the fact late career Coltrane sounds like crap. Well, I don't really care what modern jazz players are composing when you have the Lester Young Trio to enjoy. Listen, no musicians ever will be as talented as Lester Young, Nat King Cole, and Buddy Rich. So you are insane to expect anything better. Do you look at every single new house and think, "Frank Lloyd Wright would've done a better job designing that house."? No, because that's crazy. But criticizing a genre that has definitely entered another era of creativity is numb. You might not love the Lester Young Trio like I do but you can't call it boring or overrated or washed up. There's a song in there and you have to recognize the melody and what the musician does with the melody. Your homework is to listen to a Sinatra version of Mean to Me, and then listen to the instrumental version. Nat King Cole could sing the shit out of this song but he'd be challenged to sing what he plays on the piano, so that's why he played it on the piano. Savvy?

I know I got a request to monkey around and give an actual performance, but you can't get blood from a stone.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Thunderbird

I now notice the upper right wing tip is not filled in.
 Again, this is all procrastination because I think a hand embroidered Thunderbird on a shirt will not withstand machine washing. I'll probably hand wash it for a while but eventually it will go in a machine and be destroyed. The only way to do this is to pay a computerized machine embroidery shop to do it as the stitches will be solid and washable. Speaking of washable, I recommend using some fabric glue on the back side to reinforce the stitch. Fabric glue is washable. Glue a patch on the back loop side and that's all one can do to protect it.
I should frame this shirt and not wear it. But I don't really care. It's practice for an epic punch pin project that will be framed.

As I applied the final stitch the whole building shook like a bomb had gone off. 5.1 isn't very damaging but I did have about 8 seconds of wondering if I should jump out the window.

News or Spies?

"Shia militias are assembling east of the Iraqi city of Ramadi to prepare for a counter-attack against Islamic State militants who captured it on Sunday."

I've already had my say about this city of Ramadi being the one that was attacked by U.S. forces including sniper Chris Kyle, who killed all the opposition that the city now needs to defend itself. It's likely I'm missing some details to simplify the narrative; maybe the forces were building roads...while evacuating hospitals...and they needed sniper coverage because the locals were shooting at them. I don't know the whole story because I wasn't there and I can't trust most of what I read, except for the material I conveniently choose to criticize. For all I know the snipers that Kyle killed were destined to become ISIS militants. This is the tradition of self-delusion. Still, the facts remain that the city that was cleansed of militants per order of Bush Jr. is now in desperate need of militants. Make your own conclusions about that.

This comment is more about how BBC's war coverage may be interesting to read and, exciting to imagine, but aren't they actually undermining security efforts by not only writing that Shia militias are assembling near Ramadi, but they are assembling east of the city? Why don't you give their exact coordinates so any IS fighters with machetes know where to find them on Google maps? Photos of key landmarks would be helpful too. I guess if BBC knows where the Shia militias are then IS will also know, but they published a front page story about it to make sure.

This must be covered in the journalistic ethics classes that are probably brief and sparsely attended. Journalists report the news. Pundits spin the news. When pundits are mistaken for journalists then all hope is lost. So, when two militant groups maneuver and BBC can learn the exact details of the maneuvers then they will report that so anyone in the opposing group will immediately know the maneuvers of the other.  And they wonder why there is some military secrecy and silencing of Press in war-time. It's baffling. Or maybe BBC doesn't care because they don't have a dog in the fight. That's possible. What other time in history had military intelligence relayed via BBC online news to anyone with a smartphone?

Would you ever read this headline: "Enola Gay en route to drop atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Due to arrive at 8am, is traveling from south-south-west with 4-5 support crafts at altitudes around 35,000ft. Will be first of several planned Allied aerial attacks dropping atomic payloads on populated areas of Japan. In other news, the Red Sox split a double-header vs Cleveland."

Something like that might get the attention of the air force. Heck, they might even take it seriously. More observations of an old man.

Reevaluation

I've been setting new records on the depth of pondering I've been engaged in. Topics like, "What is education?" or "Is our tendency to try to understand what a movie is about applied to our own lives erroneously?" or "If a person goes insane, then will he not distrust anyone who tells him he has gone insane? And if he believes them, then doesn't that also make him insane?"

This culminated this evening with a few essays. One essay was about a complicated theory that I appreciate involving the prediction of eventual artificial intelligence, and it becomes hostile a la The Terminator, and then invents a time machine to punish people today who were not enabling the eventual artificial intelligence. Follow me? Now, that scenario doesn't interest me as much as the theory I have that autistic misanthropes are currently controlling the path of mankind and it's happening irrevocably and nefariously. This whole notion occurred to me around 2003 when someone mentioned the memory capability of computers was increasing predictably and I thought, "How can that be predictable when it involves research? How can something like that be guaranteed?"
The answer is a generation of people who are the opposite of ponderous Oggy. Where I philosophize about the nature of memory, they are automatically researching data storage. Do they ponder their existence, or at least their chose course of study and development? It's a simple question. We have to accept they are indeed flesh and blood, and have free will, and even if they are high functioning autistic whose brains act like computers, they still have the facilities to ponder their existence and the ramifications of their acts. But my suspicion is that, no, they don't ponder anything except development of memory storage. Everything else is irrelevant. So, they are acting like a programmed T1000 from Skynet and polluted lakes in China are unavoidable, predestined. This is hard to swallow because my whole approach to teaching guitar initially involves programming...but that contradicts the goal which is free-form expression. Why not start with free-form expression?
More embroidery

Friday, May 15, 2015

Don't Get Around Much


It was few years back that I recorded this Duke tune and I still play it frequently when the dark clouds of nostalgia capture me, ghosts from the past, feathered promises drying like fillets of Labrador cod on Hemlock wood racks. If heartbreak lets me appreciate Duke Ellington on a deeper level, then that's a price I'll pay. I'm cheap about everything else, but it's only because morality clings to each dollar and it's a form of responsibility to boycott everything. Rains came to Guatemala and I am scratching my Mexican sunburn until it bleeds. I noodled around on this tune and decided I had some new things to say with it, my vocabulary of grief has grown. I missed the Saturday dance. I heard they crowded the floor. I couldn't bear it without you. I don't get around much anymore.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Lago Atitlan

Forlorn Oggy looks back at the van








I don't have much to say about this famous lake. It's certainly unusual, but again, like all of Guatemala, it's the kind of place one should take a bus to. Let someone else suffer the trials of the road. The obstacles driving El Conquistador there are a test of all my facilities and detract from any kind of enjoyment of the landscape. Even in this picture I'm looking back at the ridiculous grade I need to climb in order to get out of the lake area. On the drive back to Xela a truck full of concrete blocks tipped over and blocked 3 of 4 lanes with construction debris. Another car hit the side of the mountain and caused major problems. Many many vehicles were blocking the road at one point or another due to malfunctions. If one does not focus on the task then the vehicle is either going over a cliff or will run over a 2 foot pile of broken concrete blocks or over a person drunk and sleeping in the middle of the road, or possibly into a ditch or huge pot hole. There is no moment the vehicle is moving that it's a good idea to look around and enjoy the scenery. Lago Atitlan was especially dangerous to reach. Take a bus. Hell, I almost abandoned the van there and took the bus back to Xela. But my fate is tied to the van so I got back in and spent about $10 for every mile of the 50% grade I had to climb. Dogs died in the road, children fled. It's exhausting in every sense but was unavoidable for me to keep my van in Guatemala without being deported.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Artificial Intelligence?

I'm avoiding ice cream after some recent dental scares
Computers are pretty cool. They are artificial intelligence, right? I mean, technically? You input information and then they will sort that information depending on parameters or questions you ask. That's intelligent, right? It's more than I'm capable of on most days. Well, sometimes we have artificial so intelligent that we have to outsmart it to prove that we are not also artificial intelligence. Isn't that odd? It's like Skynet. You only have to do these word scrambles if you want to comment using a google approved identity. But I have an option you can comment anonymously and I think it works ok. I want honesty most of all and I feel I can delete anything without any loss of communication because you know you typed it and I had to read it in order to delete it so the point was made. But I felt it no longer belonged in the internet, but it's still in my head and that counts for something in this fucked up world.
I want to apologize to anyone who has to answer this kind of matching game: select all ice cream> What the fuck is this? to make a comment I have to prove I'm human and I'm going to do that by comparing pictures of food and other things and determine which are ice cream and which are cakes or platters of fruit? This really irked me but I have no control over it as the spam filter is automatic. Is every fucking thing I do going to involve jumping through hoops to prove I'm human?

Funk IS Back

great lyrics from Mark Ronson
"Ride to Harlem, Hollywood, Jackson, Mississippi
If we show up, we gon’ show out
Smoother than a fresh jar of skippy

I’m too hot (hot damn)
Called a police and a fireman
I’m too hot (hot damn)
Make a dragon wanna retire man"


When I first heard this Uptown Funk tune I thought to myself, "Did someone really cover Le Freak by Chic?"

Yes and No.

Because Funk is and will always be awesome artists are hoping a ride back to 1978 with rearrangements of classic funk tunes from Marvin Gaye and Chic. The performance by Bruno Mars also returns to mid career Michael Jackson, but I dig it. The same way The Rolling Stones modified Mississippi blues to their own devices, Bruno Mars is modernizing traditional funk. The modern arrangement is very good. I prefer it to the original because the horns in the modern version replaced the strings of the original and it's good.
I merely want to point out that recently the team who produced Blurred Lines got sued by Marvin Gaye's family for as much copyright infringement that is now being overlooked in the comparison of Uptown Funk and Le Freak. The producers actually reached a settlement with The Gap Band oversimilarities, but Uptown Funk is really a blending of several songs, layered on top of one another. It's an original rearrangement with cool lyrics. A song like this would have to be split so many ways that you might as well say it's the price of being in the music business, that whatever you do today may be rearranged down the line with much more success.
Even though Mars and crew still objectify women in the video when the lyrics aren't really related to objectifying women, I wish him well.

Love & Mercy

Monday, May 11, 2015

View From Crumbling Rooftop

Looking East?

Bureaucratic lunacy has once again thrown Oggy's life into turmoil. I simply want to eat tacos and play guitar until my congenital heart disease finally kicks in, but this will not be my fate because I am periodically forced into action. The latest issue is my personal and vehicle visa, which is kind of joke considering the army of undocumented minor immigrants Guatemala sends to The United States. Like they can't take ONE undocumented political refugee from California*? No, I'm going to try to keep my political paperwork legal, like it matters in the bleak future.


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Screenshot Trivia #6

a failure so epic that it was good
I know I'm meandering toward the grave when I almost watch the whole 80 minutes of this 1985 film. Made 30 years ago and I thought I had seen everything. No, this movie slipped under the radar and it's so abominable that it's amusing. Actually, a movie that transcends quality like this almost succeeds in creating its own universe because it defies all laws of film and physics and convention. It is the kind of movie where everyone is wearing a watch. And why are wizards always riding horses. That makes no sense.
Take a guess at the movie?

Monday, May 4, 2015

Oggy in 2 Forms

Not my GIF, but I like it. A baby 3-toed sloth doing an impersonation of my wounded ego



Here's a more realistic photo of Oggy
I don't remember this photo scenario but maybe we were celebrating the divorce of my parents around this time. hahaha. pretty funny. I think I was practicing for my career as a funeral director.
Creative Commons License
Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.